Green Voyage 2050 Project

• The Green Voyage 2050 Project is a partnership project between the Government of Norway and IMO launched in 2019 aiming to transform the shipping industry towards a lower carbon future.
• It supports developing countries, including Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), in meeting their commitment towards relevant climate change and energy efficiency goals, for international shipping, through supporting the Initial IMO GHG Strategy.
• The International Maritime Organization is executing the GreenVoyage2050 Project through the Project Coordination Unit (PCU).
• The Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment provides the funding for the GreenVoyage2050 Project.

Partnering Countries

• The GreenVoyage2050 Project is working with 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Belize, China, Cook Islands, Ecuador, Georgia, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka.
• The participating countries can be broadly categorized into “New Pilot Countries” and “Pioneer Pilot Countries”.
• New Pilot Countries (NPCs) are those which will, as a first step, undertake the development of a national maritime emissions assessment, establishing a baseline and build the information base, laying the foundation for targeted actions to reduce emissions from shipping.
• Pioneer Pilot Countries (PPCs) are those which have already undertaken maritime emissions baseline work and have initiated development of their National Action Plan (NAP) to address GHG emissions from ships.

Background

GreenVoyage2050 builds upon two IMO projects that may be regarded as baseline projects in this area

1. GEF-UNDP-IMO GloMEEP Project (Global Maritime Energy Efficiency Partnerships)
2. EU-IMO GMN Project (Capacity Building for Climate Mitigation in the Maritime Shipping Industry)

• The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, popularly known as the anti-defection law, specifies the circumstances under which changing of political parties by legislators’ invites action under the law.
• The law covers three scenarios with respect to shifting of political parties by an MP or an MLA.

Three Scenarios

• Elected Member - The first is when a member elected on the ticket of a political party “voluntarily gives up” membership of such a party or votes in the House against the wishes of the party.
• Independent Candidate - The second is when a legislator who has won his or her seat as an independent candidate joins a political party after the election.
• In both these instances, the legislator loses the seat in the legislature on changing (or joining) a party.
• Nominated Member - The third scenario relates to nominated MPs. In their case, the law gives them six months to join a political party, after being nominated. If they join a party after such time, they stand to lose their seat in the House.

• Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were tried and then executed for fatally shooting a 21-year-old British police officer by the name of John Saunders, whom they had mistaken for British police superintendent James Scott, whom they had originally targeted.
• The trio believed Scott was responsible for the death of the popular nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai, who succumbed to injuries sustained during a lathi charge.
• While Singh, who had publicly announced avenging Rai’s death, went into hiding for many months after this shootout, he resurfaced along with an associate Batukeshwar Dutt, and the two, in April 1929, set off two explosive devices inside the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi, and then allowed themselves to be arrested, while shouting the famous slogan: “Inquilab Zindabad“, or “Long live the revolution”.
• The famous slogan Inquilab Zindabad was coined by the Urdu poet, Maulana Hasrat Mohani in 1921.

National Action Plan for dog Mediated Rabies Elimination by 2030

• National Action Plan for dog Mediated Rabies Elimination by 2030 (NAPRE) was launched recently.
• It wants to eliminate Dog mediated Rabies (Hadakwa disease) from India by 2030 through One Health Approach including community education, awareness programmes and vaccination campaigns.
• 33% of global rabies deaths are recorded in India.

Rabies

• Rabies is a zoonotic, viral disease spread to people from the saliva of infected animals.
• Rabies is a 100% fatal but 100% vaccine preventable.
• Rabies is a Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) that mostly affects poor and vulnerable populations. 80% of cases occur in rural areas.
• Spread - Dogs are the main source of human rabies deaths, contributing up to 99% of all rabies transmissions to humans.
• It is also transmitted through bats, coyotes, foxes, raccoons and skunks.
• In rare cases, rabies can be spread when infected saliva gets into an open wound or the mucous membranes, such as the mouth or eyes.
• Prevention - Interrupting transmission is feasible through vaccination of dogs and humans, and prevention of dog bites.
• WHO leads the ‘United Against Rabies’ to drive progress towards “Zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030”.

Swarnamukhi River

• The Swarnamukhi is an East Flowing river basin originated in the Eastern Ghats.
• It rises at an elevation of 300 m in the Eastern Ghat ranges near Pakala village in Chittur district of Andhra Pradesh.
• It runs generally in the North-Eastern direction passing through the famous Tirupati hills before joining into the Bay of Bengal.
• This is an independent river and has no major tributaries and therefore its flow depends only on rainfall in its upper catchment.